Batting

Fairfield, CT – The Sacred Heart baseball team welcomes the undefeated Bryant Bulldogs to town this weekend for a highly anticipated four game series at the Ballpark at Harbor Yard. SHU currently sits in third place in the NEC with a record of 11-5, while the Bryant Bulldogs are in first place with a record of 12-0.

Sacred Heart enters this weekend having won three out of four games last weekend against the Central Connecticut State Blue Devils. The Pioneers have now won three out of four games in three consecutive NEC series. Freshman third baseman Jesus Medina (New York, NY) was impressive from both the dish and in the field against CCSU last weekend. Medina went 6-13 at the dish in the four games and made some spectacular plays at third base. Medina had the game tying RBI in the 7th inning of their 6-5 game one victory over the Blue Devils. He went 4-5 in that game.

Sacred Heart's pitching staff has been terrific so far this season. Junior Kody Kerski (Waterbury, CT) and sophomore Jeff Stoddard (Branford) currently rank as the top two pitchers in the Northeast Conference in earned run average. Kerski leads the conference with a 1.32 ERA in 34 innings, while Stoddard is right behind him with an ERA of 1.33 in 40.2 innings. Kerski and Stoddard rank 27th and 28th respectively in the country.

Bryant currently sits at 12-0 in the NEC and is on a 19 game winning streak. Bryant is led by their top terrific pitching staff. They come into this weekend leading the NEC in team ERA, opposing batting average and strikeouts. Bryant won the NEC regular season title last season but was unable to compete in the postseason due to the reclassification process of moving to Division I athletics.

Last season, Bryant won three out of four games against the Pioneers in Smithfield, RI. Bryant game one starter Peter Kelich pitched a complete game shutout in a 1-0 win over SHU to start the series. SHU was able to salvage their lone win behind a complete game by Kody Kerski in the final game of the series. Junior DH Dan Perez (Seymour, CT) hit a home run in the game four victory.